Quick Service Restaurant Feasibility Study

Questions buyers ask

Who prepares the feasibility study behind a quick-service restaurant loan?

Someone with no stake in the deal. Loan Analytics writes limited-service restaurant studies for lenders under either SBA program, under a USDA guarantee or on conventional terms, with Daniel Smith, MAI signing the conclusion. The study places the subject inside the record this page prints, 19,828 7(a) and 1,710 504 quick-service loans over FY2017 to FY2026, then in its state and metro rows and, where listed, its lender's own book. It builds the unit's sales from the site and its competition and tests whether the loan still services at sales below the brand's average.

Does SBA always require a feasibility study for a fast-food restaurant?

No. In the SOP wording carried by our 2026 fee survey on this site, SBA has discretion to request one when it needs a better grasp of a business type and the market at the location, and the first circumstance on its list is saturation by industry type and location. Fast-food units invite that question, since they compete for the same trips on the same roads. Lenders' own policies can also require one, usually for start-ups or special-purpose property. This record gives them cause: quick-service 7(a) loans carry a 7.6% charge-off floor nationally and 15.3% in Oklahoma.

How much does a quick-service restaurant feasibility study cost?

Price ranges are what providers publish, and Loan Analytics gathered them for 2026 in the fee survey posted here. Restaurants and franchise units fall in its standard tier, $5,000 to $12,500 when the SBA study covers a single location; several locations, a concept without precedent or a build delivered in stages lift a project into the complex tier, whose range is $10,000 to $25,000; and USDA assignments written to 7 CFR Part 5001 have a separate band, from $7,500 to beyond $18,750. SBA itself sets no fee and no ceiling, the survey notes. Our quote arrives with the scope once the request form describes the project.

How long will a drive-thru restaurant study take?

The timeline follows the scope, and our reply to the scope request sets it against the lender's own deadline. What lengthens the work, according to this site's 2026 fee survey: added sites; ground-up construction, with its budget review and a ramp counted from opening; a franchise projection that must be tested against how the brand's other units perform; a USDA overlay; and rural trade areas so thin that each competitor must be seen in person. A single drive-thru pad on a suburban corridor sits at the simple end, a development program spread over several metros at the other. It also has to land before the appraisal goes stale.

What does the lender examine in a quick-service restaurant study?

Whether the unit's sales will carry the debt with room to spare. That starts with a forecast built from the location: vehicle counts by daypart, ingress and egress, the queue the drive-thru can hold, and the residents and daytime workers within reach, set against the brand's disclosed unit volumes and every competing counter-service unit nearby. Then the cost side, from land or lease through building, kitchen and signage to the franchisor's build standards. Then coverage, with royalties, advertising contributions, occupancy and labor at market rates, run at sales under the brand's average, the test a lender facing a 7.6% national 7(a) floor reads first.

Which banks are most active in SBA quick-service restaurant lending?

The Huntington National Bank leads by a wide margin, with 2,145 loans and $578.5 million in FY2017 to FY2026, followed by Manufacturers and Traders Trust Company (559), TD Bank, National Association (501), Live Oak Banking Company (483) and Stearns Bank National Association (434). By dollars, Live Oak Banking Company is second to The Huntington National Bank at $510.8 million, with Byline Bank ($234.4 million) and Wells Fargo Bank National Association ($224.6 million) next. Only lenders with 5 or more loans in the class appear on the table.

Which states have the most SBA quick-service restaurant lending?

California, at 2,752 loans and $1.32 billion over FY2017 to FY2026, ahead of Texas at 1,812 loans and $1.03 billion, Florida at 1,374 and $802.4 million, and New York at 1,092 loans and $379.1 million. Georgia ($538.7 million) and Illinois ($425.5 million) both have fewer loans than New York but more dollars. Among metros, the count leader is New York-Newark-Jersey City (1,170) and the dollar leader Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim ($501.4 million).

Which SBA program suits a quick-service restaurant project, 7(a) or 504?

The class leans heavily on 7(a): 19,828 loans over FY2017 to FY2026 against 1,710 under 504. 504 loans are larger, with a $640,500 median and a $343,250 lower quartile against $297,000 and $101,975 under 7(a), and 504 money usually goes into the land and the building. 504 approvals are cancelled more often, 14.2% against 12.3%, but charge off far less, 0.14% against 7.6%. The answer turns on what the loan pays for and on the lender's appetite; we write the study to the program the lender uses, and for 504 the property analysis is complete rather than summarised.

What size SBA loan does a fast-food restaurant usually get?

Nationally the 7(a) median is $297,000, with quartiles at $101,975 and $515,000, and the 504 median is $640,500, with quartiles at $343,250 and $1.0 million. Location moves those figures a long way. State medians run from Hawaii's $56,000 and New Hampshire's $133,700 up to North Carolina's $426,700 and Arizona's $445,000, and metro medians from $50,000 in Youngstown-Warren to $800,000 in Ocala. In 7(a), the most loans, 6,750, sit at $150,000 or less.

How often do SBA quick-service restaurant loans charge off?

This page measures charge-offs as floors on loans disbursed in FY2017 to FY2021. For 7(a) the floor is 7.6% to date and 4.4% within 5 years; for 504 it is 0.14% on both measures. State floors range from 0.00% (New Hampshire, Nebraska, Mississippi) to 15.3% (Oklahoma); metro floors from 0.00% (Cincinnati, Raleigh-Cary) to 15.0% (Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach); lender floors from 0.00% to 30.5%. Each is a minimum, because loans from those years that are still repaying can yet be charged off.

Is a franchise quick-service study different from one for an independent concept?

The tests are the same; the evidence differs. For a franchise unit the study benchmarks the projection against the brand's disclosed unit volumes and puts royalties, the advertising contribution and the brand's development requirements into the budget and the coverage test. An independent concept has no system results to lean on, so its forecast rests wholly on the site, the trade area and the competing units. The SBA record on this page counts both under the borrower's industry code, with no franchise flag, so the study draws that line from the brand's own disclosures and from fieldwork.

Does the lender care whether another brand could use the building?

Yes, and the record shows why. 504 quick-service loans, which usually finance the property, carry a charge-off floor of 0.14%, against 7.6% for 7(a). That gap suggests the class's credit risk lives in the operating unit more than in the real estate, and the real estate's strength depends partly on a site another operator could take over. The study and the appraisal should keep the property and the franchised business apart, and price what it would take to refit the building for a different concept, since a drive-thru lane, a kitchen layout or a brand-specific facade can help or hinder a re-let.

Why are quick-service loans so small in New York and New England?

The table shows the pattern but not its cause. New York and Massachusetts lend at a $150,000 median, Connecticut at $155,400, Rhode Island at $145,000 and New Hampshire at $133,700, while Rochester prints $75,000 and Worcester $87,200. Smaller loans fit leased storefronts, equipment and purchases of operating units better than land and new buildings, but a study has to establish the format from the project itself. A ground-up drive-thru in one of these markets will sit far above its local median, and the lender will ask why.

Are lenders still financing quick-service restaurants?

Yes, at close to record dollars. 7(a) approved 2,584 quick-service loans for $1.23 billion in FY2025, the largest dollar figure the series prints, and 1,859 for $971.4 million in FY2026; 504 approved 167 and 158 in those years, for $147.7 million and $147.2 million. These newest loans have no loss record yet, since the charge-off floors measure FY2017 to FY2021 disbursements only. The same series shows 7(a) approvals falling from 4,081 in FY2006 to 1,494 in FY2009, and a study should show how the unit fares if lending turns that way again.

Why do some rows on this page show 'withheld' or 'not reported'?

'Not reported' means the cohort behind a rate holds fewer than 30 loans. Delaware, South Dakota, North Dakota, West Virginia, Alaska and Vermont show it in the charge-off column, and so does Newtek Bank, National Association despite its 371 loans. 'Withheld' marks a value this page keeps back, such as the floors for Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell and Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler or the dollar totals for Oxford Bank and BankVista. Neither means zero, and a Loan Analytics study gives neither a number. The Wyoming row, 22 loans marked too few for these measures, shows no median or rate at all.

Can the same study support a USDA B&I loan or a conventional loan?

Yes. The same method serves a B&I guarantee or a bank lending with no guarantee at all. For the USDA case, the fee survey on this site prices a 7 CFR Part 5001 study separately, at $7,500 up to $18,750 and higher, because that rule spells out its own components and factors. Because every loan counted here is SBA-guaranteed, a USDA or conventional file uses the state, metro and size-band rows as context for how comparable units have been sized, while the market case itself comes from the site.

Do coffee shops or table-service restaurants count in these figures?

No. Membership in this class comes from the borrower's own industry code, which covers counter-service and drive-thru operators with or without a brand. Coffee shops and snack bars, and table-service restaurants, sit in separate classes with separate pages on this site, and franchise loans made without an SBA guarantee are absent altogether. A fast-casual concept between counter and table service should say which class its comparisons come from, because the lender will set the request against that class's record.